Satellite radiotelephone communications systems and methods are widely used for radiotelephone communications. Satellite radiotelephone communications systems and methods generally employ at least one space-based component, such as one or more satellites, that is/are configured to wirelessly communicate with a plurality of satellite radiotelephones.
A satellite radiotelephone communications system or method may utilize a single satellite antenna beam (antenna pattern) covering an entire area served by the system. Alternatively or in combination with the above, in cellular satellite radiotelephone communications systems and methods, multiple satellite beams (cells or antenna patterns) are provided, each of which can serve one or more substantially distinct geographic areas in an overall service region, to collectively serve an overall satellite footprint. Thus, a cellular architecture similar to that used in conventional terrestrial cellular radiotelephone systems and methods can be implemented in cellular satellite-based systems and methods. The satellite typically communicates with a radiotelephone over a bidirectional communications pathway, with radiotelephone communications signals being communicated from the satellite to the radiotelephone over a downlink, forward link or forward service link, and from the radiotelephone to the satellite over an uplink, return link or return service link.
The overall design and operation of cellular satellite radiotelephone systems and methods are well known to those having skill in the art, and need not be described further herein. Moreover, as used herein, the term “radiotelephone” includes cellular and/or satellite radiotelephones with or without a graphic display; Personal Communications System (PCS) terminals that may combine a radiotelephone with data processing, facsimile and/or data communications capabilities; Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) that can include a radio frequency transceiver and/or a pager, Internet/intranet access, Web browser, organizer, calendar and/or a global positioning system (GPS) receiver; and/or conventional laptop and/or palmtop computers or other appliances, which include a radio frequency transceiver. A radiotelephone also may be referred to herein as a “radioterminal”, a “mobile terminal” or simply as a “terminal”. As used herein, the term(s) “radioterminal,” “radiotelephone,” “mobile terminal” and/or “terminal” also include(s) any other radiating user device/equipment/source that may have time-varying or fixed geographic coordinates and/or may be portable, transportable, installed in a vehicle (aeronautical, maritime, or land-based) and/or situated and/or configured to operate locally and/or in a distributed fashion over one or more terrestrial and/or extra-terrestrial location(s). Furthermore, as used herein, the term “space-based component” includes one or more satellites and/or one or more other objects/platforms (such as airplanes, balloons, unmanned vehicles, space crafts, missiles, etc.) that may have a regular and/or irregular trajectory above the earth at any altitude.
Cellular satellite communications systems and methods may deploy hundreds of cells, antenna patterns or spot beams over a space-based component footprint corresponding to a service area. It will be understood that large numbers of cells may be generally desirable, since a frequency reuse and a capacity of a cellular satellite communications system or method may both increase in direct proportion to the number of cells. Moreover, for a given space-based component footprint or service area, increasing the number of cells may also provide a higher gain per cell, which can increase a link robustness and improve a quality of service.
The uplink and downlink communications between the wireless terminals and the satellite may utilize one or more air interfaces, including proprietary air interfaces and/or conventional terrestrial cellular interfaces, such as, for example, Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) and/or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) air interfaces and/or various adaptations and/or derivatives thereof. A single air interface may be used throughout the cellular satellite system. Alternatively, multiple air interfaces may be used for the satellite communications. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,560, issued Apr. 18, 2000, entitled Satellite System Utilizing a Plurality of Air Interface Standards and Method Employing the Same, by the present inventor Karabinis. In general, regardless of the air interface or interfaces that are used, each satellite cell generally uses at least one carrier and/or channel to provide signaling and/or communications service in a specified direction (forward or return). Thus, each satellite cell (satellite beam or satellite antenna pattern) must generally be configured to provide at least one return service link (carrier and/or channel) and at least one forward service link (carrier and/or channel) to serve at least one radioterminal.
The above description has focused on communications between a space-based component and wireless terminals. However, cellular satellite communications systems and methods also generally employ a bidirectional feeder link for providing communications between at least one gateway and the space-based component. The bidirectional feeder link includes a forward feeder link from a gateway to the space-based component and a return feeder link from the space-based component to the gateway. The forward feeder link and the return feeder link each uses one or more feeder link carriers and/or channels over a feeder link band of frequencies.